NAACP Files Suit Against Gun Industry

Clinton Administration To Support Gun Manufacturer Suit

The Clinton administration hopes the threat of a new, national lawsuit will persuade gun makers to negotiate with cities that accuse them of negligently allowing guns to fall into the hands of criminals.

The White House is helping prepare a class-action suit against gun makers, alleging that guns and how they are marketed have contributed to violence in public housing projects, administration officials said Tuesday.

The lawsuit by some or all of the nation's 3,100 local housing authorities would be patterned on suits filed against the industry by 29 cities and counties, the officials said.

Those suits claim that gun manufacturers have sold defective products or marketed them in ways that increase the likelihood that they will be used to commit crimes.

The administration intends to work aggressively to ... try to work to reach a settlement with the industry,'' White House domestic policy adviser Bruce Reed said. ``If settlement is not possible, then the public housing authorities are prepared to go forward with their suit.''

A negotiated agreement would allow the administration and gun control advocates to claim a victory at a time when Congress has rejected writing into law new firearms restrictions sought by President Clinton.

Administration officials said the White House and the Department of Housing and Urban Development were helping prepare the suit even though the actual plaintiff would be independent local authorities that run federal housing programs.

The White House and HUD want gun makers to agree to a code of conduct that includes cracking down on disreputable gun dealers and making safer guns. The administration also wants gun makers to agree to end practices such as marketing guns that are impervious to fingerprints.

The legal theory is the same as the cities have been pursuing - the bottom line is the gun manufacturers have not been properly supervising their distribution channels,'' and otherwise failing to promote safety, a HUD official said.

It's the traditional liability theory that is applied to every other product - negligence and product liability,'' the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The official would not detail any previous outreach to gun makers but said new talks were planned.

The gun makers have acknowledged the talks, but objected to the characterization of the meetings as ``negotiations.''

The New York attorney general is already holding discussions with gun makers aimed at curbing the sale and distribution of handguns.

The White House informed New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer that Clinton will announce, possibly as early as today, that he wants to enter the New York talks, Spitzer spokesman Darren Dopp said Tuesday night.

Among the companies reportedly involved in the discussions with Spitzer have been Smith and Wesson, Sturm, Ruger and Co., Colt's Manufacturing, O.F. Mossberg and sons, Taurus, Glock and Beretta.

Messages left at Colt's offices in East Harford, Conn., were not immediately returned Tuesday night.

New York officials have threatened to sue the manufacturers unless they agree to a similar code of conduct governing the sale and distribution of their products.

Some gun makers have declared bankruptcy in the wake of the suits by local governments, and others have scaled back their product lines and decreased advertising, according to a countersuit.

The suits have had mixed success in the courts. A judge dismissed Cincinnati's suit in October, but another judge allowed Atlanta's suit to proceed and ordered the industry to open its files.

Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Bellevue, Wash.-based Second Amendment Foundation, said if the housing authorities sue, his group likely would file another countersuit on behalf of gun makers.

Gottlieb claimed that the administration was encouraging suits against the gun industry in hopes of bankrupting gun companies.

The idea, he said, was ``file as many suits as possible. The industry can't fight hundreds of lawsuits - it would bankrupt them.''

Associated Press Writer Michael J. Sniffen contributed to this report.

(posted December 8, 1999)